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Whom Gods Destroy (episode)
Kirk and Spock are held captive in an insane asylum by a former Starfleet hero. Summary , an Orion woman]] Kirk and Spock beam down to the Elba II asylum and are met by Dr. Cory, the governor of the penal colony. He explains that they have just increased the number of inmates by one, and the new inmate is Garth of Izar. Kirk mentions that Garth was a legendary Fleet Captain before going insane, and that his exploits were required reading at the academy. Dr. Cory leads Kirk and Spock to Garth's holding cell, only to discover the actual Dr. Cory restrained and looking roughed-up. At this point, Garth reveals himself and opens the remaining holding cells, releasing the inmates of Elba II. After placing Kirk and Spock into the holding cell with the real Dr. Cory, it is explained that Garth learned how to morph his cellular structure to look like other people. Garth morphs into Kirk and visits the transporter room, intent on taking control of the ''Enterprise'' and seeking vengeance against his former crewmembers. Scotty, who is in command of the Enterprise, asks "Kirk" for the transport code word: "Queen to Queen's level three," but Garth is unable to respond with the correct counter sign. He tells Scotty that was just a test and then gets very angry, causing him to turn back into his true form. Realizing that he can't board the Enterprise without the counter sign, Garth returns and invites Kirk and Spock to dinner, but states that governor Cory is not on the guest list. They all proceed to an elaborate feast with the inmates serving as entertainment. After the feast is over, Garth brings in a rehabilitation chair which he has modified to cause pain. Governor Cory is placed in the chair and tortured for a short while. Kirk refuses to give in, and Garth places him in the chair instead. After another episode of torture, Kirk is placed in a separate room where Marta comes to him and begins to seduce him. She suddenly looses it and tries to stab Kirk, who manages to fight her off. Marta explains that Kirk is "her lover and she must kill him." She is prevented from doing so by Spock, who uses the Vulcan nerve pinch to subdue her. Spock and Kirk proceed to the transporter room, and Spock attempts to get Kirk to give the countersign. Kirk refuses, and demands that Spock give the countersign. He steps back and draws his phaser instead. At this point, Spock morphs into Garth and reveals it was a trick all along. Kirk's phaser, naturally, is uncharged. Eventually, the real Spock shows up and Garth morphs into a likeness of Kirk. The two begin fighting while Spock tries to decide which one is the real Captain Kirk and which one is Garth. The fight ends in a tie, and Kirk tells Spock to shoot both of them. Spock then shoots the fake Kirk and allows the security team from the Enterprise to beam down and restore order in the asylum. Once the inmates have been returned to their holding cells, Garth is placed in the rehabilitation chair (the non-painful version) and returns to a sedated state. As he is being moved from the chair to his cell, he notices Kirk and very calmly asks if they know each other. Kirk tells him that they do not, and Garth is led away. Log Entries *''Captain’s log, stardate 5718.3. The Enterprise is orbiting Elba 11, a planet with a poisonous atmosphere, where the Federation maintains an asylum for the few remaining incorrigible, criminally insane of the galaxy. We are bringing a revolutionary new medicine to them. A medicine with which the Federation hopes to eliminate mental illness . . . for all time. I am transporting down with Mr. Spock, and we're delivering the medicine to Dr. Donald Cory, the governor of the colony. '' Memorable Quotes "Queen to queen's level three." : - repeated by various characters "Queen to king's level one." : - the countersign "Gentlemen! You have eyes, but you cannot see! Galaxies…surround us! Limitless vistas! And yet, the Federation would have US grovel away like some ANTS… on some… somewhat larger than usual anthill!!!! But I am not an insect! I am… Master of the Universe! And I must claim my domain!" : - Garth to Kirk and Spock "I'm the most beautiful woman on this planet." "You're the ''only woman on this planet, you stupid cow!" : - '''Marta' and Garth (The response from Garth has been edited out and replaced in the Nik-at-Nite "G" rated version of this episode which aired in June 2007) "Why can't I blow off just one of his ears?" "Stop it, Marta. Mr. Spock will think we are lacking in hospitality." : - Marta and Garth "He's my lover and I have to kill him!" : - Marta to Spock about her "lover", Kirk "Lies! All lies! You are the greatest liar I have ever met!" : - Garth "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, and summer's lease hath all too." "You wrote that?" "Yesterday, as a matter of fact." "It was written by an Earthman named Shakespeare a long time ago." "Which doesn't alter the fact that I wrote it again yesterday! I think it's one of my best poems, don't you?" "I MAY KILL YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS!" : - Marta and Garth "She's yours if you wish, Captain." "Oh, uh... Thank you. That's, uh... very magnanimous of you." : - Garth and Kirk, about Marta "REMOVE THIS ANIMAL!!!!" : - Garth "In the midnight of November ''When the dead man's fair is nigh And a danger in the valley And the anger in the sky" : - Marta (misquoting A. E. Housman) "Captain Kirk, I presume." : - Spock, after stunning "Lord" Garth Background Information * The title is taken from Euripedes (later quoted by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow): "Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad." (In Latin: "Quem deus vult perdere, dementat prius.") * This is the third consecutive episode to guest star an actor from the Batman TV series--namely, Yvonne Craig. * Contrary to popular belief, the Tellarites in TOS always had three fingers, even in the episode "Whom Gods Destroy." Although, upon closer inspection, the fingers are sleeker in appearance than they were in season two. "The Lights of Zetar" would be the only time we see a Tellarite with five fingers in TOS. * Story outline was produced . In the first draft script ( ) Garth of Titan threw the asylum guards out into the poisonous atmosphere. The atmosphere inside the asylum was also more graphic, with inmates displaying symptoms of various mental illnesses. Produced mid-October 1968. * Garth's furred robe is the same one worn by Anton Karidian in "The Conscience of the King." * Interestingly enough, while the Andorian inmate is wearing an almost boa-like red costume, one of the human inmates is wearing the traditional Andorian costume seen in the second season. * Garth's uniform appears to be the same one worn by Commissioner Ferris in "[[The Galileo Seven|The Galileo Seven]]." It also appeared in the 2nd season episode "Journey to Babel". However, Garth wears the outfit with one silver boot and one gold boot. * The fight between the two Kirks is notable in that the unknown stunt double for William Shatner is his spitting image. Hairstyle, build, facial features are eerily similar. * Footage of the ''Enterprise'' firing phasers down to the surface of a planet is reused from "Who Mourns for Adonais?". * Space suits are reused from "The Tholian Web". * Garth's torture chair is reused prop of the chair in the neural neutralizer room from "Dagger of the Mind". * In the scene where Garth morphs back from being Kirk while on the floor of the conrol room, watch carefully: Garth's big plastic ring busts off and rolls on the floor as he bangs his fists. * In the scene where Kirk is on the torture chair, when the torture ends at Marta's request, Kirk shows relief from the pain a small moment before the click of Garth's remote control actually shut the torture device off. * This is the only episod where Spock performs a simultaneous double Vulcan nerve pinch on two distinct alien species while "waking up" from fake unconscience. *Kirk tells Spock that he doubts King Solomon would have approved of the Vulcan's manner of determining who was Kirk and who was Garth. The two of them, and Dr. McCoy, would meet Solomon (an immortal human who was born Akharin and was then living as Flint) not long afterwards in TOS: "Requiem for Methuselah". *Kirk refers to Spock as his "brother" and Spock agrees with this figurative interpretation of their relationship. Kirk would refer to Spock as his "brother" again in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. *In the United Kingdom, the BBC skipped this episode in all runs of the series though to the early 1990s, due to its content. It was finally shown for the first time on . * Garth's self-coronation followed by the coronation of his female consort can be considered reminescent of the only known self-coronation in modern history: the one of Napoléon Bonaparte to the status of Emperor of the French (followed by the coronation of Joséphine de Beauharnais by him). This is in direct thematic correlation with Garth's delirius on the question of universal conquest. * Spock's sentence Captain Kirk, I presume? is an allusion to the famous question asked by explorer Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904) to David Livingstone (1813-1873) on the shores of Lake Tanganyika on November 10, 1871: Doctor Livingstone, I presume? A statement of the obvious wrapped in euphemistic manners. *Despite the apparent success of the drug in this episode being able to cure the mental illness of Garth and the other inmates, it seems never to have been employed again. In future episodes of TOS, the Enterprise crew encounters characters who are pronounced insane (such as Dr. Sevrin from "The Way to Eden" and Janice Lester from "Turnabout Intruder"), but no mention is made of using the drug introduced in this episode to cure them. Additionally, although the Elba II asylum is mentioned in this episode as being the last of its kind, mental asylums are mentioned as being maintained in future incarnations of Star Trek, such as the "Federation Funny Farm" from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Frame of Mind". * This was the first episode produced without co-producer Bob Justman, who had been with the series, in different capacities, since the production of "The Cage" in 1964. He left the series to work on other projects, specifically the series Then Came Bronson. (According to the book Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, Justman broke a contract with Paramount Television, and didn't set foot on the lot for almost twenty years.) Coincidentally, the theme over the closing credits for this episode, and the rest of the series, reverted to the version used in the second season. Production Timeline * Story outline by Lee Erwin, * Story outline, * Teleplay, * First draft script * Revised teleplay, * Filmed in mid October 1968 Links and References * A VHS edition is available through Amazon under ISBN 6300988678. Main cast * William Shatner as Kirk * Leonard Nimoy as Spock * DeForest Kelley as McCoy * James Doohan as Scott * George Takei as Sulu * Nichelle Nichols as Uhura Guest Stars * Keye Luke as Donald Cory * Steve Ihnat as Garth of Izar * Yvonne Craig as Marta * Gary Downey as Tellarite * Dick Geary as Andorian * William Blackburn as Hadley (uncredited) * Frank da Vinci as Brent (uncredited) * Roger Holloway as Roger Lemli (uncredited) References Alexander the Great; Antos IV; asylum; Axanar; Bonaparte, Napoleon; Caesar, Julius; Cochrane deceleration maneuver; Elba II; Elba II asylum; Hitler, Adolf; Kuan, Lee; Krotus; Orions; Romulans; Shakespeare's sonnets; Shakespeare, William; Tau Ceti; three-dimensional chess External Links * |next= |lastair= |nextair= }} Category:TOS episodes de:Wen die Götter zerstören es:Whom Gods Destroy nl:Whom Gods Destroy